Blood Money
Cast & Crew
Rowland Brown
George Bancroft
Judith Anderson
Frances Dee
Chick Chandler
Blossom Seeley
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Bill Bailey, a former police officer who became a bail bondsman after he was thrown off the force, is an influential force in Los Angeles with politicians, judges, police and the underworld. Bill becomes attracted to Elaine Talbert, the wealthy daughter of an important capitalist connected to various Hawaiian concerns, when she comes to him after she has been charged with shoplifting. Through his influence with the Merchants' Protective Association, Bill has the manager of the department store drop the charges. Elaine invites Bill to a luau at her father's Brentwood estate, where she tells Bill that if she met a man who would be her master and give her a good thrashing, she would follow him around like a dog on a leash. Elaine's father explains that she has an "underworld mania," and that she is extremely fond of detective stories and movies. Ruby Darling, Bill's lover since the days when he was poor, learns about his growing infatuation with Elaine, but he tells her that no one could ever take her place with him. When Ruby's brother Drury pulls a bank robbery netting him $500,000 in bonds and currency, Bill convinces him to give himself up and post a $50,000 bail with the option of jumping the bail if things turn bad for him. Elaine, fascinated when she hears that Drury is a bank robber, flirts with him, and they surreptitiously begin a romance. When the district attorney locates the girl Drury had in his car the day of the robbery, Bill convinces him to jump bail and leave the country because one more conviction would mean a life sentence. Drury makes plans to meet Elaine in New York and arranges for her to destroy $300,000 worth of bonds, which are of no use to him because they are registered, and to pay Bill in gold securities to cover the $50,000 bail that he will have to forfeit. Elaine, however, keeps the securities and gives Bill a briefcase filled with the bonds. Furious that he has been made into a "chump," Bill hunts Drury down and has him arrested. Ruby, believing that Bill sent her brother up for life because of Elaine, meets with a number of underworld figures and instructs them to frame him. One of the racketeers, Charlie, arranges for a number of criminals to jump bail on Bill so that he will have to make good on their bonds. He then has his men blow Bill's safe, and after the police find the $300,000 in registered bonds, Bill is indicted for possession of stolen property. In revenge, he joins a newspaper campaign against a politician in cahoots with the racketeers, who is running against the incumbent mayor. When the mayor's vice squad, tipped off by Bill, goes on a rampage against gambling halls and resorts, Charlie vows to assassinate Bill. Because Bill is heavily guarded, Charlie's cohort Nagel suggests that they puts explosives in an "eight ball" and plant it on the table at the pool hall Bill frequents. When Elaine visits Drury in prison to try to help him break out, he learns that she kept the securities because she knew her father would cut her off. Drury slaps her and tries to tell his sister the truth, but because he struggles with the guards, he is placed in solitary confinement. He manages to write a message on the bottom of a plate, and the message gets to Ruby. She speeds in a cab to the pool hall and crashes outside it just as Bill is about to hit the eight ball. Ruby tells Bill about the ball, and he throws it outside, where it explodes. Elaine, who has decided that Bill is the only man who understands her, comes to the pool hall, but sees Bill embracing Ruby and leaves. She then meets a woman who was brutalized by a man named Johnson when she answered an ad for an artist's model. Bursting with desire to meet Johnson, Elaine dashes off. Bill tells Ruby that he'll never be behind another eight ball, and she says that though he probably will, she will always pull him out.
Director
Rowland Brown
Cast
George Bancroft
Judith Anderson
Frances Dee
Chick Chandler
Blossom Seeley
Etienne Girardot
George Regas
Joe Sauers
Noel Francis
William Lemaire
Theresa Harris
Matt Mchugh
Grover Lignon
Kathlyn Williams
Frank Moran
Frank Austin
Eugene Storm
Bradley Page
Franklin Parker
Selmar Jackson
Earl Mcdonald
Jimmy Burke
Wade Boteler
John Bleifer
Louis Natheaux
Robert Webb
Clarence Hummel Wilson
Herman Bing
Dewey Robinson
Eddie Kane
Jimmie Slaving
Eddie Gargan
William Elthorne
Grace Poggi
Frances Dunn
Edward Van Sloan
Fred Kohler
Harry Depp
Franklyn Ardell
Mike Donovan
Eddie Hart
Hal Price
Lucille Ball
Harold Berquist
John Webb Dillon
Ann Brody
Henry Lewis Jr.
Sandra Shaw
Henry Kolker
Douglas Cosgrove
Crew
Kitty Alexander
Andy Anderson
Fred Bentley
Rowland Brown
Jimmy Connelly
Al D'agostino
Ed Ebele
Samuel G. Engel
Ruby Felker
William Goetz
Kenny Green
Raymond Griffith
Leo J. Hefferman
Karl Herlinger
Julia Heron
Elmer Howard
Speed Kendall
Ray Kilgore
James Light
Hal Long
Lee Marple
Mickey Meyers
Alfred Newman
Lloyd Nosler
Bruce Rutherford
Joseph M. Schenck
Ben Silvey
James Van Trees
James Van Trees Jr.
Oscar Wright
Darryl F. Zanuck
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to a Motion Picture Daily news item, when Darryl Zanuck, 20th Century Pictures, vice-president in charge of production, bought Rowland Brown's unpublished story "Bail Bond," he gave Brown an option to direct. According to a Variety news item, the unpublished story "Bail Me Out," also about the bail bond racket, by reporter Speed Kendall, was purchased for the use of several of its scenes for this film. That story originally was submitted to Warner Bros. when Zanuck was with that studio. This was Judith Anderson's first film. Reviews note that this was George Bancroft's first film in over a year. According to Hollywood Reporter news items, Loretta Young and Claire Luce were scheduled to be in the film at various times, and Tallulah Bankhead was offered the female lead. The Twentieth Century-Fox Produced Scripts Collection at the UCLA Theater Arts Library notes that Luce tested for the role of "Elaine." Variety commented, "Parts of the narrative were evidently left in the cutting room, as pressbook, for example, mentions a county jail from which Bancroft escapes. This isn't in the picture at all." Variety also speculated that some of Blossom Seeley's scenes were cut.
According to a memo in the MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library, the Maryland State Motion Picture Board initially banned this film on the grounds that it was "salacious and would incite law-abiding citizens to crime." The ruling was appealed by the Baltimore United Artists manager to Judge Samuel K. Dennis of the Baltimore City Court, who reversed the censor board's decision. While Judge Dennis stated in his decision that the film was "ineffective" as far as inciting anyone to commit crimes, he called it "objectionable on the grounds of extreme stupidity and dullness rather than on moral grounds." Bernard B. Gough, the chairman of the censor board, stated that he could not appeal the reversal because the law made no provision for an appeal. In 1934, this film was on the first list of films banned for members of the Catholic Church's Legion of Decency. In July 1935, PCA Director Joseph Breen ruled that the film was in violation of both the spirit and letter of the Production Code because of "the portrayal of a crook as the sympathetic leading character, and the complete absence of any attempt to portray the forces of law and order as opposing his illegal activities."
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1933
Released in United States March 1977
Released in United States 1933
Released in United States March 1977 (Shown at FILMEX: Los Angeles International Film Exposition (Treasures from UCLA Archives) March 9-27, 1977.)
